Faculty members may be appointed at the rank of lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor, or professor, based on education and demonstrated scholarship.

Faculty members may be appointed at the rank of lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor, or professor. A community preceptor or other part-time or adjunct clinical faculty will usually be appointed at the rank of lecturer.

Faculty members may be appointed at the rank of lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor, or professor. A community preceptor or other part-time or adjunct clinical faculty will usually be appointed at the rank of lecturer.

* Year-end refers to the end of the academic year (June 30). Requests for activity reports will be sent out in April of each year.

***All faculty members are required to report to their University Department Chair any information, both historical and current, relevant to the clinical academic appointment including, but not limited to: finding of negligence; investigation and/or finding of guilt of a criminal offence, academic misconduct, incompetence or any form of professional misconduct by a court or the CPSO’s Discipline Committee or Fitness to Practice Committee (or its equivalent in any jurisdiction). As required in the Procedures Manual for the Policy for Clinical (MD) Faculty, self-reporting must be made to the University Department Chair within seven working days of receipt of notification or knowledge of such a conviction, finding or investigation. For an investigation by the Discipline Committee or Fitness to Practice Committee (or its equivalent in any jurisdiction), self-reporting must conform to all applicable policies and procedures, including, but not limited to, hospital by-laws and CPSO regulations.

Department of Medicine Requirements for Appointment at the Rank of Assistant Professor

The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto requires advanced training ANDdemonstrated scholarship for inital appointment at the rank of assistant professor or higher.

Advanced Training:

While the details will vary depending on the proposed academic position description (table 2 below), for appointment as an assistant professor the Faculty stipulates one must have a graduate degree or other advanced training, such as in the form of post-residency fellowship, that is relevant to the proposed position. For example, a MSc in Engineering may be relevant to an individual whose area of academic focus is biomedical engineering, but does not ensure that someone hoping to build a career in quality improvement (QI) will be successful.

Demonstrated Scholarship:

Evidence of scholarship ensures that the individual is not only knowledgeable, but can apply this knowledge in the form of one or more of sustained excellence in teaching, creative professional activities and research, as defined below:

Sustained Excellence in Teaching may be demonstrated through a critical mass of: teaching evaluations that provide comparisons against peer teachers; student testimonials; a breadth and depth of teaching, e.g. across different trainee level and/or training environments; and receipt of teaching awards and honours.

Creative Professional Activity (CPA) is a broad term that includes by is not limited to the following types of activities:

Contributions to the development of professional practices, e.g., guidelines, health policy development, regulatory committees and setting of standards

Research Scholarship may be demonstrated through traditional research metrics, e.g., peer reviewed publications and grants, research awards and honours, graduate student teaching and supervision, and other evidence that the research has been conducted has had, or has potential to have, an impact – direct or indirect - on the health of the population. Examples might include: identification of a new target for drug development; development and uptake of clinical practice guidelines; impact on government policy; new models of care with demonstrated improvements in patient outcomes, healthcare costs, and/or the patient experience. Continuing Faculty Appointment Review occurs three to five years from first appointment, irrespective of the initial rank (i.e. lecturer or assistant professor).

Department of Medicine Requirements for Appointment at the Rank of Lecturer

A community preceptor or other part-time or adjunct clinical faculty will usually be appointed at the rank of lecturer.

Initial appointment at the rank of lecturer may also be appropriate for full-time clinician-teachers and clinicians in quality and innovation who have relevant advanced training, e.g. a certificate in QI, but require additional time to demonstrate scholarship. Clinician-investigators, clinician-educators and clinician-scientists who have clearly demonstrated scholarship and completed advanced training save for thesis defense may also be considered for initial appointment at the rank of lecturer; a lecturer appointment enables application for peer-review funding as PI. This latter group is then eligible for junior promotion (lecturer to assistant professor) upon successful thesis defense.

Foreign-Trained Physicians:

To be eligible for CPSO academic certificate of registration, foreign-trained physicians must be eligible for clinical full-time or (rarely) clinical part-time appointment at the rank of assistant professor or higher.

Application Process and Documentation Requirements:

The Office of the Chief of Medicine has overall responsibility for the assembly and submission of requests for appointment. Complete application packages must be submitted online via Laserfische. This includes:

Letter of support from Chief of Medicine (part-time and adjunct faculty) ( * If in private practice, departmental division director signature is sufficient) providing justification for the requested appointment and rank

Approval: Applications are reviewed by the Department Appointments Committee, which meets monthly. Recommendations from this committee are submitted to the Department Chair for approval. For full-time clinical appointments at the rank of lecturer and for all part-time and adjunct clinical appointments, approval is required from the Senior Advisor to the Dean on Clinical Affairs on behalf of the Dean. Unless there is a formal search with University representation, full-time clinical appointments assistant professor or higher must be reviewed by the Faculty Appointments Advisory Committee (FAAC), before being submitted to the Dean for approval.